The present invention relates to interactive audio systems, and in particular, to interactive audio task systems and methods with interrupt recovery and confirmations.
Computer systems are becoming increasingly mobile. More than ever before, users are attempting to interact with computing resources while outside of their homes and offices in locations such as restaurants, trains, and other public spaces. Some users may even use their mobile devices while operating a vehicle, for example, which can lead to accidents. Because of the proliferation of mobile systems to support personal connectivity and business productivity, it is unlikely that vehicle drivers can be prevented from using computing resources while on the road. Therefore, it is desirable to develop user interaction paradigms that can support computer usage in a manner that maintains safe vehicle operation.
Within the driving context, the vehicle driver's primary attention is (or should be) on the driving task itself. Additional tasks, such as listening to the radio, talking with passengers, or interacting with mobile systems, are secondary and require the driver to allocate attentional resources away from driving. If attentional resources are properly focused on driving, this means that performance of the secondary tasks will be degraded, especially under difficult driving conditions, such as bad weather and heavy traffic.
One common way to alleviate the burden on the driver's attentional resources is to relegate the computer interaction to the audio channel. This approach is often used in systems developed for drivers, since the driver's audio attention appears to be much less vital to safe vehicle operation than the visual channel.
However, using audio to interact with mobile computing resources does not eliminate the problem of limited attention. Even when the audio channel is used, driving performance is typically degraded because of a misallocation of resources towards the secondary tasks. This may be caused because drivers are afraid to make mistakes in the secondary task, a problem that is likely to become more pronounced if the secondary task has (business or personal) importance to the user. For this reason it would be desirable to have a system that interacted with uses in a way that improved a user's confidence that secondary tasks are being performed accurately.
Related to the concept of improved accuracy is recovery following an interruption. Because of the nature of mobile computing, there are commonly situations where the operator's full attention is diverted away from the computing task being executed. For example, in the case of driving, there are frequently circumstances where the driver's full attention is diverted to the road, with no spare resources for secondary tasks. These circumstances include accidents, mechanical failures, and unexpected roadway obstacles. In such cases, secondary tasks may be suspended either automatically by the vehicle interface, or manually by the driver's lack of attention. Following an interruption, it would be desirable for the system to provide users with a graceful mechanism for resuming the secondary tasks, if so desired.
Similarly, mobile system interaction may be subject to normal changes in the environmental context, such as shutting off and starting up the mobile system. For example, unlike desktop interaction, where tasks can be performed or abandoned (mostly) based on the user's desires, vehicle-based interaction may be stopped because the user has completed the primary driving task, and now wishes to stop the car. In this case, it would be desirable to have a system that could resume tasks from the point where the break occurred.
Thus, there is a need for improved audio interactive systems. The present invention solves these and other problems by providing improved interactive audio task systems and methods with interrupt recovery and confirmations.